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Space

All articles tagged with #space

space1 hour ago•6 min saved

Red Dwarfs: The Galaxy's Quiet, Long-Lived Stars

Red dwarfs are the longest‑lived stars—potentially around 10 trillion years—thanks to slow hydrogen fusion and a convective interior that reuses fuel; they make up about three‑quarters of stars, including nearby Proxima Centauri, which hosts Earthlike Proxima b. While such systems could harbor habitable worlds, tidal locking and stellar flares complicate life, though a distant greenhouse effect could help; in any case, red dwarfs will dominate the galaxy’s stellar population long after larger stars fade.

via Defector|

#alpha-centauri #exoplanets #habitable-zone

space5 hours ago•16 min saved

NASA to test nuclear-powered interplanetary propulsion with Mars flyby and three helicopter scouts

NASA plans the late-2028 SR-1 Freedom mission, a nuclear-electric propulsion test that will fly to Mars in 2029 without landing, then release SkyFall—three Ingenuity-style helicopters designed to survey the Martian environment, measure weather, and use ground-penetrating radar to search for subsurface ice. The mission aims to validate nuclear-powered propulsion for deep-space travel, build flight heritage for future Moon and Mars missions, and inform later power systems like Lunar Reactor-1.

via The Times of India|

#mars-helicopter #nasa #nuclear-propulsion

business5 hours ago•18 min saved

IonQ’s Space Push Signals Monetization Beyond Quantum

IonQ is expanding beyond its quantum-computing roots as its Skyloom unit deployed dozens of optical communications terminals on defense satellites for the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, signaling a move from development to recurring space revenue with 84 terminals now in orbit. In Q2, IonQ revenue rose to $80.1 million (up 287% YoY) and full-year guidance was raised to $280–$290 million, but adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $120.3 million, highlighting the cost of scaling. Investors trimmed the stock after the company did not disclose contract values, while an upcoming Sept. 8 Investor Day is expected to detail Skyloom’s monetization path and IonQ’s broader strategy to monetize its expanded portfolio in quantum networking, sensing, security, semiconductors and space-based communications.

via Yahoo Finance|

#business #ionq #quantum

space8 hours ago•2 min saved

Watch NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Launch Live on Aug 30

NASA will televise the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Aug. 30, 2026, with live coverage beginning at 6:20 a.m. ET and liftoff no earlier than 7:26 a.m. ET atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center. The telescope, named for NASA's former chief of astronomy, features a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s and will study dark energy while using coronagraphic techniques to image exoplanets. If Aug. 30 slips, a backup window is set for Aug. 31 at 7:22 a.m. ET, and NASA will host prelaunch briefings on Aug. 29.

via Engadget|

#exoplanets #live-launch-coverage #nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope

space9 hours ago•1 min saved

SpaceX fires Falcon 9 on 37th-flight booster to deploy Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX will launch Starlink 10-49 on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, using booster B1067 on its 37th flight to deploy 29 satellites; the booster is slated to land on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, and this could be the last Starlink flight from Cape Canaveral for a while as the company shifts focus to Starship preparations, with the majority of Starlink missions this year having flown from Vandenberg.

via Spaceflight Now|

#cape-canaveral #drone-ship-landing #falcon-9

space9 hours ago•7 min saved

Star S301 races the Milky Way’s black hole at 8% lightspeed

Astronomers have identified S301, a faint main‑sequence star on an 8.7‑year, highly eccentric orbit around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, reaching speeds up to 25,000 km/s (about 0.08c) at pericenter. This motion probes relativistic effects and could reveal the spin of Sgr A*, with S301 likely a captured binary via the Hills mechanism.

via Boing Boing|

#astronomy #black-hole #relativity

space13 hours ago•9 min saved

CosmoCube: A Tiny Moon Mission Aims to Hear the Universe’s Dark Ages

A UK-led project called CosmoCube, a suitcase-sized satellite, would orbit the Moon’s far side to shield from Earth’s radio noise and search for the faint 21-centimeter hydrogen signal from the cosmos before the first stars, potentially revealing how dark matter influenced the early universe; over a planned two-year mission it would accumulate about 1,000 hours of observations using a compact radiometer, with hopes to launch within five years and demonstrate low-cost cosmology from small satellites.

via SciTechDaily|

#21-centimeter-cosmology #cosmocube #dark-matter

space15 hours ago•160 min saved

SpaceX hits rocket reuse milestone with 100th Falcon 9 flight of 2026

SpaceX is slated to launch a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral carrying 29 Starlink satellites in what will be the 100th Falcon 9 flight of 2026 and the booster B1067’s 37th mission; the first stage is expected to land on a drone ship about 8.5 minutes after liftoff and the upper stage will deploy the satellites roughly 61.5 minutes later, underscoring SpaceX’s ongoing focus on rapid reuse as the Starlink constellation expands beyond 11,000 satellites and Starship’s orbital test is anticipated later this year.

via Space|

#cape-canaveral #falcon-9 #rocket-reuse

science20 hours ago•15 min saved

Starlink satellites become a giant scanner of Earth's upper atmosphere

Researchers used publicly available orbital data from about 1,200 Starlink satellites at roughly 482 km altitude to estimate thermospheric density through atmospheric drag. Applying tomography across the satellite constellation produced a two-dimensional map of density variations by geography, which closely matches observations from ESA’s Swarm satellites. The approach could improve models of satellite motion and collision risk as low-Earth orbit gets busier, and hints at near-real-time atmospheric monitoring using commercial spacecraft data in the future.

via The Times of India|

#satellites #science #space

space23 hours ago•3 min saved

Hybrid Starshade Could Let Telescopes Directly Image Rocky Exoplanets

NASA-led researchers propose HOEE, a hybrid observatory that pairs an orbital starshade with ground-based extremely large telescopes to directly image rocky Earth-like exoplanets by blocking starlight; the occulter would orbit ~175,000 km away in an elongated orbit, using 48 petals and a 50 m disk, and be precisely positioned by microthrusters to suppress glare, enabling optical observations of nearby systems within ~20 light-years and the search for atmospheric life signatures; Phase B NIAC funding is sought for 2027, with an inflatable final design to keep launch mass under 1,500 kg and a total cost around a billion dollars.

via Universe Today|

#astronomy #exoplanets #hoee

space1 day ago•5 min saved

S301: A Lightning-quick Pass Near Sagittarius A* Tests Black Hole Physics

Astronomers have identified S301, a star orbiting extremely close to the Milky Way's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, reaching about 15,500 miles per second (roughly 55.8 million mph)—the fastest speed ever observed and the closest approach to the black hole to date. Its extreme proximity allows direct tests of relativistic effects, such as frame-dragging (Lense-Thirring), with upcoming measurements from facilities like the Gravity instrument on the VLT and MICADO on the ELT over the next decade.

via CNET|

#black-hole #frame-dragging #lense-thirring

space1 day ago•166 min saved

Two decades after Pluto’s demotion, should it regain planet status?

Space.com notes that 20 years after the IAU reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet, debate persists about whether it should be considered a full planet again. Proponents like Paul Byrne argue the distinction is semantic and that Pluto (and other dwarfs) share planetary processes, while the IAU definition requires a body to clear its neighborhood and Pluto’s orbit crosses Neptune’s. The article suggests the discussion centers on science communication and taxonomy as much as on nostalgia, with some calling for a new category or definition rather than simply restoring Pluto’s planetary status.

via Space|

#dwarf-planet #iau #planet-definition

space1 day ago•1 min saved

NASA's Roman Space Telescope set to unlock dark matter and distant worlds

NASA plans to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope later this month, featuring a 2.4-meter mirror and a 300-megapixel infrared camera to survey wide swaths of the sky. Its field of view will be about 100 times larger than Hubble’s, enabling studies of dark matter and exoplanets, with Japan contributing an instrument and ground stations for data. The launch from Kennedy Space Center is slated for August 30, with first observations after about three months of testing.

via nhk.or.jp|

#dark-matter #exoplanets #nasa

space1 day ago•163 min saved

Seventeen-Spacecraft Observation Reveals Two-Part Solar Eruption

A December 2024 coronal mass ejection was tracked by a record 17 spacecraft spread across the solar system, showing the eruption consisted of two asymmetric lobes traveling at different speeds rather than a single front. This wide, off-axis coverage allowed scientists to reconstruct the CME’s two-dimensional shape and evolution, improving forecasts of how such solar storms propagate and boosting warning time for future crewed missions beyond Earth. Observations came from missions including SOHO, SDO, STEREO-A, MMS, ARTEMIS, Wind, ACE, GOES, DSCOVR, BepiColombo, MAVEN, Solar Orbiter, Europa Clipper, and others; the findings were published in Science Advances.

via Space|

#coronal-mass-ejection #heliophysics #multi-spacecraft

space1 day ago•160 min saved

NASA backs 18 radical spaceflight ideas, from a fleet of femtosats to lunar cave explorers

NASA's NIAC program selected 18 Phase I feasibility studies, each funded up to $175,000 for nine months, to explore transformative space technologies for future missions. Concepts include the Lunar Underground eXplorer drones mapping lunar lava tubes, a plan to deploy 10,000 tiny femtosats to Saturn's rings, and a dynamic hierarchical nulling interferometer to image exoplanet surfaces; these are seed ideas, not missions, intended to mature technologies for Artemis-era exploration.

via Space|

#femtosats #lux #niac